Window Server 2012 Aimed at CIOs Looking Toward the Cloud

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is a big step in the company’s shift toward cloud computing, analysts say. For CIOs who are moving an increasing amount of their resources into the cloud, that means that Microsoft is likely to remain a viable option, even as rivals continue to gain traction in the market.

Windows Server 2012 is the back-end companion to Windows 8, the soon-to-be-released overhaul of Microsoft’s operating system for desktop computers, tablets, laptops and other devices. Server 2012, which manages storage and applications for the other devices that share the network, has been designed with the cloud in mind. It makes it easier for CIOs and network administrators to utilize data centers, private clouds, public clouds, or some fluid combination.

Windows Server 2012 includes an updated version of Microsoft’s virtualization tool Hyper-V, that is also built into Azure. Hyper-V serves as a bridge between Windows Server and Azure, allowing private cloud users to create virtual machines that can be used on premises or moved onto the public cloud. Past version of Windows Server included a version of Hyper-V that allowed virtualization of machines that would work on-premises but could not be sent into the public cloud.

Hyper-V is designed for easy integration with Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud, and is a competitor to clouds offered by Google, Amazon, Rackspace and others.

To make the transition between public and private clouds easier, CIOs can run Azure and Server 2012 through a common management portal and move applications between Azure and on-premises storage, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

“Microsoft is saying there is the option of everything going into the cloud,” Ray Wang, founder and CEO of Constellation Research, said. ”But if you want to still keep things on premises, we’re going to make that as affordable as possible.”

The network management tool, released Tuesday, will make it easier for CIOs to set up private clouds by allowing better control over the way data and applications are allocated across servers, analysts say.

The new version of Hyper-V allows 2,048 virtual central processing units per host—four times as many as the 2008 version.